This blog is a place to archive project processes and techniques from Painted Threads with descriptions of how work was produced. I am including comments that contain questions and answers pertaining to the work from many of the original blog posts.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Working with Photoshop.

The program Photoshop is an amazing tool. (The full package is very expensive, it is geared for professional designers and photographers, but there is a more affordable Photoshop you can get with a few less bells and whistles.) If you enjoy photography and manipulating images, I highly recommend you spend some time learning and playing with this program. If you google photoshop tutorials you will find many free tutorials that will help you learn how to use this program. Helen Cowans, a very talented textile artist and photographer in the UK has a link to some wonderful Photoshop tutorials, well worth a visit.

I took this photo of a moth that unknowingly came inside on my shirt.The photo on the right is the original, on the left is the photo that I manipulated the color and contrast. My daughter taught me how to create the framed vintage effect on the top photo layering several images and then combining them into one image.

On the left is my original uncropped thistle photo. Once again I played with layers. I had my original as the bottom layer and placed a duplicate image on top. I desaturated the top image (turned it black and white) and then colorized it green. Using the eraser tool I erased the thistle flower from the top layer exposing the purple flowers from the bottom layer. I added an image of a vintage photo lens that I tinted sepia to frame the image and multiplied the layers.

This apple tree photo was done in a similar way, de-saturating the top layer until there was just a hint of color, then using the eraser tool to remove areas from the top layer, exposing the colored layer below.

With the shovel photo, I mostly played with the contrast and color saturation.

I took these photos at a friends home in California a couple years ago, they have a lovely property filled with fruit trees and vegetable gardens.

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About Me

I’m an International award-winning mixed media textile artist, traveling globally to teach painting and mixed media techniques on fabric and lecture about my creative process. I received my BFA in graphic design from The Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, but found my true passion when I began working with textiles.

One part gypsy and two parts visual alchemist, I travel to new places, opening up new realms of possibilities for my students by revealing endless ways to combine paint, paper and metal with fabric and the sources of inspiration we all too often overlook in our immediate worlds.